A variety of situations have existed in which an object inadvertently falls into a body of water and location and retrieval of the object is desired. For example, a shotgun or rifle may inadvertently fall into a water body during hunting; target shooting or the like or a fishing rod may inadvertently fall into a water body during fishing. Attempts may be made to locate an object submerged in a water body by extending a net or other elongated object into the water, attempting to locate the object by feel and then dredging or scooping and lifting the object from the bottom of the water body to the water surface. However, this method is difficult to implement successfully since the water in which the object is submerged may be murky and thus may significantly hamper visual location of the object. Moreover, as it descends in the water, the object may travel and reach the bottom of the water body in a different location than the location at which the object disappeared from the surface. This may render difficulty in locating the object for retrieval.
Accordingly, embodiments of an object locating apparatus which releases a visible float to the surface of a water body to mark the location of an object to which the apparatus is attached in the event that the object falls into the water body are disclosed.